15931/5CHIPPENHAM man Robin Summerhill is urging motorists to join him in a slow protest drive along the Wiltshire stretch of the M4 next weekend to rally against the new speed cameras.

Mr Summerhill, of Birch Grove, feels so strongly about the cameras, he has started a group called M4 Protest to voice his disquiet.

The 52-year-old housing consultant, who insists he has never been fined for speeding in 37 years of motoring, said: "This is not the way that we should be policed.

"You can be burgled, assaulted or harassed and the police say 'sorry, there's nothing we can do' but if you're caught doing 80mph on a quiet Sunday morning they'll nick you."

Mr Summerhill is asking motorists to drive at 56 mph the speed HGVs are limited to. He said he hoped the protest drive on April 30, between Chippenham and Membury Services, will show the driving public's dissatisfaction with speed cameras and that safe driving is too complex to be measured in miles per hour.

"People can drive like fools, but because they are under the speed limit they think they are driving safely," he said. "After £700 million pounds of

speed camera fines, road deaths are going up, yet the greedy camera partnerships simply keep expanding, placing more and more cameras.

"The motoring public is at breaking point and something has to give. I believe it is important that the entire ethos of speed cameras in the UK is re-examined from the foundations."

He said the response to his actions so far had been amazing, with more than 40 people offering their support.

"We've been running for less than 24 hours and already the response is amazing," he said.

"I hope drivers and riders will turn out in big numbers on the day. Speed cameras are an issue that affects road users everywhere. Let's hope that the politicians get the message we're not going to stand for it any more."

People wanting to join the protest should visit www.m4protest.org for news or more information.

David Frampton, project manager of the Wiltshire and Swindon Speed Camera Partnership, said that in the first week of operating between junctions 15 and 17, four drivers had been caught driving at speeds of 85-90 mph and one driver at 91 mph. He said the low number of drivers caught speeding was very encouraging and the majority of drivers were staying within the speed limit.

He said: "People are slowing down there's no doubt about it. We've had literally hundreds of letters and emails from people against the cameras, which is no surprise to us. What is a surprise is that we've also had lots of letters and emails from people saying what a pleasure it is to drive along that stretch of motorway now."

Mr Frampton said that the planned go-slow would not be a problem as long as the drivers remained within the speed limit.